Poison pen letters sent to residents of sleepy village over their ‘sick’ Halloween decorations

HALLOWEEN decorations saw two residents of a sleepy village blasted for their “disturbed minds” in poison pen letters.

An office clerk hosting a party and a grandmother who created a display for schoolchildren received the mystery letters.

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Decorations outside the house of Paul Downs, 36, saw him sent a poison pen letterCredit: Mercury Press

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His display included fake bodies hung from the front of his homeCredit: Mercury Press

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Paul Downs dressed up as Pennywise for Halloween this yearCredit: Mercury Press

Paul Downs, 36, and Anne Weeks both received the notes, which detailed the importance of Halloween in the Christian calendar, on Wednesday November 2.

Paul spent a whopping £700 on decorations to make his house, in Morton, Lincs, look particularly haunting this office clerk and grandmother targeted with notes explaining the Christian significance of the celebration Halloween.

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The Halloween enthusiast, who dressed as Pennywise this year, said: "You know your Halloween decorations are on point when someone feels the need to send you the Christian definition in the post.

"We have a big party every year and have decorations in the garden and throughout the house – it's an excuse to get everyone together and have fun.

"We've never had anything like this before. The village is quite into Halloween – when you walk down our street we wouldn't be the only one with decorations up."

Anne, 59, said: "It's ridiculous. I do displays for Christmas, Easter and Halloween and have been doing so for the last 17 years.

"My house used to be a shop and I've got three big bay windows so I can go to town.

"I love interior design and having lived in Michigan, America, for four years a long time ago I really got into Halloween.

"My display was not scary at all. Paul's display is a bit more CSI but there's nothing gruesome, bloody or demonic about my displays – it was just three windows containing pumpkins, Harry Potter-themed decorations and cute witches."

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Paul and his wife Nicky Downs host a Halloween party every yearCredit: Mercury Press

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This letter was sent to two people living in a sleepy village after a person was offended by their Halloween displaysCredit: Mercury Press

The letter, which included multiple paragraphs copied from Wikipedia, reads: "Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of All Hallows' Evening),[5] also known as Allhalloween,[6] All Hallows' Eve,[7] or All Saints' Eve,[8] is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day.”

It continues: "It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from Celtic harvest festivals which may have pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, and that this festival was Christianized as Halloween.[1][7][12][13][14][15]Some academics, however, support the view that Halloween began independently as a solely Christian holiday.[1][16][17][18][19]"

The letter ends by stating: "All in all this Christian practice seems more fitting to our time and sensibility than the horrors and fears of pagan superstition and fear often portrayed in gruesome images that can, in extreme images, express very sick and disturbed minds."

Paul said: "You can only presume that when I was putting my decorations up on Saturday someone's seen them when coming down the close.

"It's never been an issue before. I was more disappointed than anything.

"We spend a lot of money each year on hosting the party and each year the decorations grow in size.

"The decorations always remain after the party until Halloween and all the children in the village love them.

"The party is the one night in the year when all our friends can let their hair down and have a kid-free night.

"We really do go all out and it saddens me that somebody would want to spoil that."